It is folly for an eminent person to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected by it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age, have passed through this fiery persecution. There is no defense against reproach but obscurity; it is a kind of concomitant to greatness, as satires and invectives were an essential part of a Roman triumph.

Joseph Addison

Thus it was with the men of rank, on whom their eminent position imposed the guardianship of the public morals.

Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The Scarlet Letter

What eminent sociologists!

Ray Bradbury -- The Martian Chronicles

Gilgamesh is the most glorious of heroes, Gilgamesh is most eminent among men.

Unknown -- The Epic of Gilgamesh

This always pleased the eminently practical friend.

Charles Dickens -- Hard Times

In the latter part of the last century there lived a man of science, an eminent proficient in every branch of natural philosophy, who...

Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The Birthmark

Show more again

The Judge, beyond all question, was a man of eminent respectability.

Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The House of the Seven Gables

They were surely older than her, but they behaved as if she were a visiting eminence.

Dave Eggers -- The Circle

George was a massive and eminently regal beast whose coat was silver-white.

Farley Mowat -- Never Cry Wolf

The clothes in the store look to me eminently respectable, of conservative styling and subdued color, not too fancy or too cheap, the blouses and pantsuits and skirts of office managers and junior executives and the young real estate agents who aren’t Liv Crawford quite yet.

Chang-rae Lee -- A Gesture Life

Kate wasn’t sure what Reynie was laughing about, but she was eminently agreeable, and before long she was laughing with him.

Trenton Lee Stewart -- The Mysterious Benedict Society

But as Werner stands in the slowly dispersing fog at the end of the rue Vauborel, rehearsing what he’ll say, the front door of Number 4 opens, and out steps not an eminent old scientist but a girl.

Anthony Doerr -- All the Light We Cannot See

The books, of course, reflected the great trends of literature; the selection was vast and represented all the eminent authors.

Pat Conroy -- The Water is Wide

There it stood now, as I stepped back into the shop, still tall and gleaming on its concrete block, but shorn now of eminence.

Corrie Ten Boom -- The Hiding Place

His role as the adviser of the man who had recently made himself President was supposed to be secret, but his eminence was generally known and he had been invited to lecture at the university where Yvette was.

V.S. Naipaul -- A Bend in the River

I scan the first paragraph: "Eminent artist Elaine Risley returns to hometown Toronto this week for a long-overdue retrospective."

Margaret Atwood -- Cat’s Eye

Arthur Duncan was swollen with benevolence, bowing and nodding to the more eminent members of the assembly.

Diana Gabaldon -- Outlander

An eminent and scholarly bishop!

Upton Sinclair -- The Jungle

Pre-eminent among the pigs were two young boars named Snowball and Napoleon, whom Mr. Jones was breeding up for sale.

George Orwell -- Animal Farm

He went over his vices in his mind, not knowing to which of them to give the pre-eminence.

Leo Tolstoy -- War and Peace

Indeed his position was eminent, for Uncle John moved sideways, leaving space between Pa and himself for the preacher.

John Steinbeck -- The Grapes of Wrath

Even now it delights me to record your words and to dwell on the praise of which you are so eminently deserving.

Mary Shelley -- Frankenstein

Mr. Hopkins was succeeded by Mr. Austin Gore, a man possessing, in an eminent degree, all those traits of character indispensable to what is called a first-rate overseer.

Frederick Douglass -- The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Max van de Velde is a farm boy from Medemblik, but eminently suitable, as Margot would say.

Anne Frank -- The Diary of a Young Girl

He conducts his house without enterprise, but with eminent decorum.

H.G. Wells -- The Invisible Man

He confessed to the assassination of eminent Party members, the distribution of seditious pamphlets, embezzlement of public funds, sale of military secrets, sabotage of every kind.

George Orwell -- 1984

He sent his sons ahead of him shouting and waving ceremonially preserved animal parts to announce his eminence.

Barbara Kingsolver -- The Poisonwood Bible

His intellectual eminence carries with it corresponding moral responsibilities.

Aldous Huxley -- Brave New World

He has tonight earned an eminent place in the roll of the benefactors of our town; and he is worthy of many imperishable songs.

J.R.R. Tolkien -- The Hobbit

While the struggle between day and night lasted, Dantes still doubted; but as soon as the daylight gained the pre-eminence, he saw that he was alone with a corpse.

Alexandre Dumas -- The Count of Monte Cristo

It was part of some historic tribute to eminent Italians.

Dan Brown -- Angels & Demons

It reminded him of that interview with the eminent novelist, last winter.

Ayn Rand -- Atlas Shrugged

She wore a dark-coloured travelling dress of some thin material eminently suitable for the heated atmosphere of the train.

Agatha Christie -- Murder On The Orient Express

His father, Walt, is an eminent aerospace engineer who designed advanced radar systems for the space shuttle and other high-profile projects while in the employ of NASA and Hughes Aircraft in the 1960s and 70s.

Jon Krakauer -- Into the Wild

Nor is the pre-eminent tremendousness of the great Sperm Whale anywhere more feelingly comprehended, than on board of those prows which stem him.

Herman Melville -- Moby Dick

It is true that the Took family had long been pre-eminent; for the office of Thain had passed to them (from the Oldbucks) some centuries before, and the chief Took had borne that title ever since.

J.R.R. Tolkien -- The Fellowship of the Ring

Bingley urged Mr. Jones being sent for immediately; while his sisters, convinced that no country advice could be of any service, recommended an express to town for one of the most eminent physicians.

Jane Austen -- Pride and Prejudice

When I was about six years old, my father heard of an eminent oculist in Baltimore, who had been successful in many cases that had seemed hopeless.

Helen Keller -- Story of My Life

Indeed there were several eminent linguists of the opinion that this was how the noun originated.

Eoin Colfer -- Artemis Fowl

As Haley approached, he was boasting, in flourishing style, to Andy, of the evident and eminent success of the operation, now that he had "farly come to it."

Harriet Beecher Stowe -- Uncle Tom’s Cabin

They were even boastful of its eminence in those particulars, and were fired by an express conviction that, if it were less objectionable, it would be less respectable.

Charles Dickens -- A Tale of Two Cities

This sort of contempt for eminences, or rather dread of the labor of ascending them, might have been termed the besetting weakness of the warfare of the period.

James Fenimore Cooper -- The Last of the Mohicans

The nurseries for males of noble or eminent birth, are provided with grave and learned professors, and their several deputies.

Jonathan Swift -- Gulliver’s Travels

Not the less for this do I go on speaking with Sir Brunetto, and I ask, who are his most known and most eminent companions.

Dante Alighieri -- Dante’s Inferno

There were the deacons, and other eminently pious members of his church.

Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The Minister’s Black Veil

If they left him alone, he left them alone—a state of affairs that they found, after a few encounters, to be pre-eminently desirable.